page_title: Doug Sahm
section_title: Atlantic years: 1970s
hierarchical_section_title: Doug Sahm / Atlantic years: 1970s
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Doug Sahm distributed by Atantic records
context_page_description: Douglas Wayne Sahm was an American musician and singer-songwriter from Texas. Born in San Antonio, Texas, he was a child prodigy in country music but became a significant figure in roots rock and other genres. Sahm is considered one of the most important figures in what is identified as Tex-Mex music. Proficient on multiple instruments, he was the founder and leader of the 1960s rock and roll band, the Sir Douglas Quintet. He would later co-found the Texas Tornados with Augie Meyers, Freddy Fender, and Flaco Jiménez as well as Los Super Seven.
context_section_description: In 1973, Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records bought Sahm's contract and produced his solo debut Doug Sahm and Band, an album featuring Bob Dylan, Dr. John, David Bromberg, and Flaco Jiménez. "Then in October 1972, Dylan was in the studio with Doug Sahm... Dylan having been friendly with Sahm since the mid-sixties and having expressed enthusiasm for the Sir Douglas Quintet on more than one occasion."
  Sahm continued recording both as a solo artist and with the Sir Douglas Quintet. During this period, Sahm also had a couple of minor motion picture roles. In 1972, he and the Quintet appeared with Kris Kristofferson in Cisco Pike, and in 1979 he was featured in More American Graffiti. Sahm was also a sought-after session musician, appearing on releases of other artists, including the Grateful Dead and Willie Nelson.
  During 1975 Sahm played a pivotal role in the musical resurgence of fellow Texan Roky Erikson, who had been struggling to survive on the Austin music scene after being released from his infamous period of court-enforced confinement in a psychiatric hospital. Through Craig Luckin, Sahm's San Francisco tour manager at the time, Erikson came to San Francisco and performed a brief four-song set over three nights, backed by Sahm with the reformed Sir Douglas Quintet. Sahm also funded and produced Erikson's first "comeback" single, "Starry Eyes/Two-Headed Dog", for Erikson's new band Bleib Alien (later renamed the Aliens). Sahm had earlier worked with former Creedence Clearwater Revival members Doug Clifford and Stu Cook—Clifford produced and played drums on Groover's Paradise (1974), a Warner Bros. Records release credited to Doug Sahm and the Tex-Mex Trip, on which Cook also played bass—and this in turn led to Cook and Luckin jointly producing The Evil One, the first album by Roky Erikson & the Aliens, whose lineup included guitarist Duane Aslaksen, Sahm’s touring sound mixer and guitar technician at the time. In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau called Groover's Paradise Sahm's "most unambitious music since the days of Together After Five" with the Sir Douglas Quintet.
caption: Sahm recording for Atlantic Records in 1973
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